The 23rd edition of the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival kicks off Friday with a documentary about Civil Rights leader, entrepreneur and Hall of Fame Coach George Raveling.
Directed by Mike Tollin and narrated by Marlon Wayans, who played Raveling in Air (2023), Unraveling George will make its world premiere at 2pm at the MV Performing Arts Center, kicking off the festival’s Aug. 1-9 run.
“George Raveling is a mentor, a friend, and a confidant, and I would not be Michael Jordan without him,” says the 6x NBA champ in the trailer for the doc.
At 21, Jordan forged a bond with Raveling, an assistant on the gold medal-winning 1984 US Olympic basketball team.
“While George is not widely known by the public, he has been a bit of a ‘Zelig in African-American culture,” explained Tollin. “He was there at Martin Luther King’s side for the monumental ‘I Have A Dream’ speech, and actually was given the original copy of the speech by MLK Jr. He was the person most responsible for Michael Jordan going to Nike and changing the sporting landscape forever. He coached two US Olympic basketball teams and five major college teams, and led Nike grassroots and then their global efforts to expand the game of basketball around the world. He brought Kobe Bryant to China and Dirk Nowitzki to the US. Above all, he has been a role model, a mentor, a ‘second father’ to scores of young men for the last half-century
After becoming University of Maryland’s first African-American coach in the history of the ACC under Charles ‘Lefty’ Driesell, Raveling went on to serve as head coach at Washington State, Iowa and USC, before retiring in 1994. He ran Nike Basketball from 1993 through 2018, remaining a senior advisor to founder Phil Knight.
The doc also features Ben Affleck, Nike CEO Phil Knight, Jerry West, Ahmad Rashad and Dirk Nowitzki, as well as Hall of Fame coaches including Pat Riley, Doc Rivers, Lefty Driesell, John Calipari, and Jay Wright.
From executive producer Charles Barkley, Unraveling George is also produced by Wayans and Tollin’s MTP, which is planning wide distribution and a series of special events around the doc in early 2026.
